A New Year, Trees, and Cross-stitch

It is a new year.

We ended the last year at Lake Mattamuskeet at the North Carolina coast.  I began editing the pictures when we returned and these two following stood out to me a lot regarding the new year.  

(I will share more of our trip in a later post.)

As I stared at this path in front of me, I could not help but think of the new year ahead.  Many people have New Year's resolutions or goals they have set for the year.  As I have mentioned in previous years, I usually do not make resolutions as I would rather take each day as it comes.

When looking at this picture as I edited it, I couldn't help but think those trees are representative of us at the beginning of a new year.  These are cypress trees that are living in the water.  They have shed their needles and will get new ones in the spring/summer.  

We usually want to shed our old habits and continually grow and get stronger as each new year progresses. 

This next picture shows the same pathway at a different place.  Another, larger tree, stands out in this photo.  Each time I see this picture, and even when I took it, this set of verses came to my mind:

Psalm 1:1-3

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

As I go through this new year, how will I walk the path that the Lord gives me? 

Will I walk wisely?

Will I choose to delight myself in God's Word and meditate on it day and night?

Will I shed old habits and thinkings and grow stronger in the Lord's way?

If I do those things,  then I will be like these trees.  I will be able to grow and flourish as the seasons come - whatever seasons the Lord brings throughout my year.  I will be able to bring forth fruit - the Fruit of the Spirit because I have chosen to stay planted by the river of God's Word.  I will prosper.

I know that God's Word helps me understand that "prosper" is not necessarily the way the world sees it with material possessions.  To me, I have prospered if next year this time I can look back and say I have grown closer to the Lord in the seasons and delight even more in His Word.


This leads me to my next picture.  It has nothing to do with Lake Mattamuskeet, but with what I begin teaching my students every year at this time.  It is another reminder of how God works the details of our lives in a new year, but using different imagery. 

Cross-stitching.

The picture below is of the project I have been working on since 2011.  This is a large project, and I must admit it will take me years to complete. 

As this was laying out one day and I passed by it, the Lord directed me to photograph it to remember a truth He had given me.  This cross-stitch piece that is going to take me years to complete is just like what the Lord does for us in our lives year after year. 

When your life begins you have no idea how it is going to turn out or really what it looks like.  This cross-stitch piece is such a picture of that.  I have a picture in my pattern, but I cannot imagine what it will really look like when it is finished. 

As I have carefully followed the pattern, I have begun to see the picture of that pattern come to life.  I am now able to distinguish the details and beauty of the pattern, but I have only just begun!  As I hold the fabric and guide the needle, it is a joy to watch the colors meld together to form another part of the picture. It is exciting to know that stitch by stitch I am creating something that will be a reminder of the work I put into it.

Having said that, the Lord showed me that this cross-stitch piece is like my life in His hands.  He knows the full pattern.  He sees the colors that will shape the beauty that He is unfolding. He carefully sews in the colors and patterns in my life to help me to become something beautiful that will only magnify Him and show His glory. 

Look at the picture again.

Notice how there are different colors strategically placed in the middle of colors of the same.  Notice there are areas where there is one color "all alone" and not making any sense yet to the entire picture.  There are also spaces where every color but one space is filled. 

This year, my life will continue to look like that picture above.  There will be times what is happening in my life during the year the "colors" will make sense and begin forming something.  There will be times when I have scattered view of what is happening.  Then there will be times where every part but one small space is filled and I have to be patient with the Lord to sew in that color in His timing.

I will not see the cross-stitch piece of my life fully finished until I reach Heaven and see my Savior, the Needle Worker, face to face.  I can trust Him to be ever watching, holding me in His hands as He joyfully sews the colors that make up the pattern of this new year for me - and the years to come.

The Lord has given me Psalm 40 as the chapter to muse upon as the year begins.  The verse He has given me for the year actually came from Psalm 40 before I realized He was giving me the entire chapter to study.  Here is the verse He has magnified for me:

Psalm 40:16 

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.

I pray that as I go through this year, I will continue to be that tree by the waters that delights in the law of the Lord day and night.  I desire to grow in the seasons so that at the end of the year I can look back on the pattern of my life He has sewed and can say "The Lord be magnified."